Sizzling First Encounters with Tina Pinson

Well, pull up your Kindle or Nook, and welcome Tina Pinson- whose ebook just came out last month, In the Manor of the Ghost. If you haven’t had a chance to see her book trailer or see her cover, check it out at Tina’s blog – http://tinapinson.blogspot.com

1. What do you think makes a good hero/heroine first encounter?

Excellent question, and a bit hard to answer because there are so many factors that can be added together to make an encounter.

First and foremost, there has to be a memorable, tangible tension.

This tension can be romantic in nature, thick with notable emotional, even physical chemistry. Here, our characters have this inner for each other, the draw is like that of a silken cord. But they are strangers, their desire is caught behind an invisible insurmountable wall. Still you know, without a doubt, that sooner or later they will fall for each other. That is the nature of love. Or the nature of hope.

Then there is the static friction type tension. One’s oil and one’s vinegar. Or maybe baking soda and vinegar, and you get Mount Vesuvius whenever they’re together, but you understand. With one searing glance, the hero or heroine is burned by the fire from the other’s eyes or tone. They are argumentive, at constant odds. Love has not even entered their minds, perhaps murder, but not love. But over time that changes, and the rough edges began to melt away to love.

That’s kind of how it was when I first meant my husband. I thought he was such an obnoxious, arrogant snot, my hand itched to slap him whenever he was around. He thought I was a brat, a know it all.

We finally worked it out, shared Love’s First Kiss so to speak, and we’ve been married thirty-plus years

Ah love.

Of course, in some of my novels, the characters meet without all the usual fanfare and romantic tension, good or bad, because they are children. In one, they grow up together for sometime, then meet years later. In another they meet then are separated, meeting again only after they are grown. But I love those touching moments, these innocent moments of love, because you know they’re going to meet again somehow, someway. And you hope they’ll fall in love.

Great points! And I can’t wait to read about some of your ‘innocent’ meetings and young love.

Following are two excerpts for young love and hearts that reunite.
Set up: Its during the Civil war. Thea is eight, dressed as boy, she works the culm banks gathering coal at a mine in Kentucky to help make extra money for the family. When she sees the coach arrive with Stephen and his father, she decides to make some money watching their horse.

While his father escorted the babbling rock thrower home to his mother, with a death grip on his shoulder, Stephen helped Thea to her feet. Dazed, she balanced against him.

“You okay, girl?” he whispered, wiping a tear from her eyes. Her eyes wide, she pulled away. He held her. “It’s okay, I won’t tell, neither will my pa. I won’t even ask why.” Lifting her cap, he gently fingered the lump. She winced. “No blood. You okay?” he asked again. His eyes mirrored the depth of concern in his voice.

“Yeah. They hit your horse,” she cried. Sniffing, she wiped a dirty sleeve across her face.

He pulled a clean hanky. She looked up with sad gray eyes as he wiped her face. His hanky quickly turned gray and black, and served to smear the grime on the little girl’s face.

She looked at him. “You’re only gonna get your pretty hanky dirty.”

“No matter.”

She swiped at her eyes again. “I did my best to protect him. But they got >im. Your pa won’t be mad, will he?”

“Nah.”

“Would he hit me if he was?”

Stephen’s hand stilled, he jerked his head. “The bosses would hit you?” She nodded. He knelt down. “Pa would never hurt you.” He wiped another tear from her cheek, making another black gray streak on his boiled, white hanky. “I can’t say the same for that boy he dragged home,” he added with a grin, wresting a smile from Thea.

Thea closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead.

“Maybe we should take you home?” Stephen offered.
It’s now 1872. The characters are all grown up, Stephen uses his middle name, Marcus, because it’s simpler to distinguish him from his father and grandfather who bear the same first name. Thea and Marcus don’t know each other. He saw Thea in the dining room before, but this is the first time he talks to her.

Marcus took a short walk and returned to the hotel. In a jovial mood because he’d managed to escape an evening with Phoebe and Grace, he’d bounded up the stairs, catching two at a time — sometimes three — ready to rest before the coach ride the next morning. He came to a halt when he found Thea. She was standing, silently, a few feet away– too far by his estimation. Her curls, loosed from the pins that held them aloft earlier, encircled her face in soft wisps and spilled over her partially bared shoulders. She was leaning against the door to her room striking as nonchalant a pose as any lady could when she was trapped in the hotel hallway in her under drawers.

Marcus had wanted to make her acquaintance in the restaurant, and now she was alone. Had there been a gambler’s moon outside? He wasn’t sure, but good fortune seemed to smile on him. He wasn’t much a church going man, or a time even considered himself agnostic, but maybe there was a God in heaven after all.

“Things are looking up.” He sighed under his breath when he started down the hall.

Ah! What a meeting! Poor Thea – this ought to be a fun scene.

I love your writing, Tina, and so glad I could feature it here – and hopefully introduce people to your books.

Thanks so much for being here.

Now, for those of you who have enjoyed these little ‘encounters’ – I’m trying to convince some of my aspiring writer-buddies to post a sizzling encounter from their books. Will they? Hmm, I’ll let you know what next week holds – but for now, I’m off to work on my ACFW Novel Track: Writing.